Hosted by kittens.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker KitSileya: "What is your favorite flower/tree/plant and why?"
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
Quote of the Day
"I've gone from being very male dominant to being surrounded by magnificent women. I can't help but be a feminist."—George Miller, writer and director of Mad Max: Fury Road, in an interview with Vanity Fair.
I have all the thoughts and feelings about this quote.
On the one hand, I love that he's crediting the women in his life for making him more sensitive.
On the other hand, I just despair at the idea that men don't feel they are "surrounded by" women unless and until women in their personal lives exhort them to greater sensitivity. (And, let's face it, there are still plenty of men who have lives full of women who don't give a fucking shit about feminist ideals.) It wasn't like George Miller woke up one day and women were there when they had never existed before.
Women are more than half the human population. Men are "surrounded by" women their entire lives, but they still have a choice about whether to care about those women, or even see us.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by potatoes.
Recommended Reading:
TLC: [Content Note: Transphobia] Stop the Bathroom Police
Aura: Prominent Immigrant Advocate to Lead Clinton's Latino Outreach
Emily: [CN: Class warfare] I Was an Undercover Uber Driver
Jessica: [CN: Rape culture] Columbia President Refuses to Shake Emma Sulkowicz's Hand at Graduation Ceremony
Sefira: [CN: Racism; classism] How Racist Housing Laws Are Keeping New Orleans White
John: [CN: Homophobia] Texas University Bars Student-Athletes from Same-Sex Dating, Publicly Supporting Same-Sex Marriage
Trudy: The Great Grace Jones
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly dozes at the window, waiting for Iain to get home from work.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Fat Is a Feminist Issue: Concert Tee Shirts
by Sue Kerr, who can be found blogging at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents and tweeting at @PghLesbian24.
[Content Note: Sizism.]
I'm not a big fan of live music so my collection of concert shirts is pretty limited. My partner, Ledcat, on the other hand loves both—she has a closet filled with shirts and an impressive collection of ticket stubs.
The shirt is a tangible reminder to her of the live music experience—a memento, a souvenir, and an opportunity to immerse herself in the actual experience each time she pulls the shirt out of the drawer. It is more than a memory; it is a reflection of her very real bond with the music and the artist.
I like tee shirts quite a bit, but there's one significant difference—Ledcat is a size medium and I am between an XL and a 2x. And even allowing for the "fit" difference in tee shirt styles, she always finds a shirt that fits. That's not even a question—for her it is more about selecting a style or design. As a larger sized fan, I am not so fortunate.
When we went to our first Sleater-Kinney show in March, I was pretty excited to have a real feminist music experience. Ledcat bought herself a medium shirt and I thought it was sort of cool, so she tried to find a 2x for me (it looked like slim cut.) No dice—just a XL in tee shirts. They did have a 2x hoodie for $60, but that's far more than I'll pay for any hoodie. So I opted for an XL and hoped for the best.
I took a closer look at the shirt later in the week. It was made in a sweatshop free factory which is great. It wasn't terribly expensive ($25) which is also great. But when I put the shirt on my body, I hated it. It was clingy and uncomfortable. I immediately consigned it to the "wear around the house or under something" pile. I was bummed.
I looked at the Sleater-Kinney website and still saw nothing bigger than an XL. That seems very odd for a feminist rock group. After all, isn't fat a feminist issue? Wouldn't a feminist group be conscious of the fans who wear larger sizes?
Why does it matter?
Two reasons. First, I expect feminist bands to be conscious of the inclusion of all of their fans in the fan experience. The graphic designers and printers I asked about sizing told me that bands requesting 2X or larger usually do so because of an actual person that they know—a fan, a band member, family, etc. In other words, they have a personal awareness of the need for larger sizes. That makes sense, but I would expect feminist groups to have that heightened awareness on a systemic level—much like buying shirts that are sweatshop free. It isn't just a personal favor; it is a conscious choice by the artists to invite all of us into the full-fan experience, not just those in typical sizes.
Second, the merch is a way to engage the community. If I walk around with a Sleater-Kinney shirt, the world knows that people like me are fans and listen to the music. People whose bodies that look like mine. I'm not just a listener; I'm a fan. It is a message that transcends my personal engagement. The XL shirt that I bought is cute, but not comfortable so it will never see the world. Or be seen by the world. It will be a sleep shirt or a shirt used for layering during cool weather. I won't put it on because I want to be a fan that afternoon; I'll put it on without any real conscious thought. Or worse I'll just cram it into the back of my closet because it annoys me to think that I dropped $25 on a shirt I don't really like until a few years down the road when I finally think to donate it to Goodwill.
After first posing this question to the Shakesville community in comments, I started doing some digging to see what sizes are available online. I could identify only three artists who profess feminist ideals offering shirts in size 3x—Mary Lambert, Nicki Minaj, and Beth Ditto (of Gossip). Several have a few options in size 2x, including Ani DiFranco, Beyoncé, The Indigo Girls, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, and Taylor Swift. Janelle Monáe had extra smalls, but no XL or above on her website. Queen Latifah has an entire clothing line devoted to plus-sized women, but I can't find any licensed official merch items.
A few things to keep in mind: First, online stores don't necessarily reflect merch options on the road. Second, I limited my search to artists who have the financial resources to spend extra funds on printing multiple sizes. I realize many feminist artists are touring out of suitcases and have more limited means to invest in merchandise. Third, this is a limited sample based on my own perspective of feminism and musicians. I visited the merchandise stores a few times to confirm sizes. I did reach out to Mary Lambert, Beth Ditto, and to Sleater Kinney for comment, but got no responses.
And, finally, what about fans who wear sizes larger than a 3x who are seemingly shut out of the entire realm of tee shirt fandom? Should they just buy a CD and an embossed baseball cap?
There's no reason a website store cannot offer a variety of sizes, even if they may have to take backorders. The per-shirt cost of larger sizes can be absorbed into overall prices of all shirts—I did the math with several graphic printers. On the road? Yes, you run out of certain sizes. But if you tell me I can order online through your website, I personally probably would do so to get the shirt that I want.
And rest assured I want to get that shirt, enough that I did all of this research around the issue. The end goal is to convince more artists to invest in all of their fans, across all of our body sizes.
What concert shirts would you like to see available in sizes larger than XL?
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Environmental disaster; video may autoplay at link] Fucking hell: "A broken pipeline spilled 21,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean before it was shut off Tuesday, creating a slick stretching about 4 miles along the central California coastline, the U.S. Coast Guard said. ...The pipeline was shut off about three hours [after the spill was reported] but by then the slick stretched four miles and 50 yards into the water. The 24-inch pipeline is owned by Plains All American Pipeline, which said it shut down the flow of oil and the culvert carrying the oil to the ocean was blocked. 'Plains deeply regrets this release has occurred and is making every effort to limit its environmental impact,' the company said in a statement."
LOVE: "Betty Reid Soskin, 93, is thought to be the nation's oldest active park ranger, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. She has worked at Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, since 2003. Soskin recently discussed with the Today Show how she sees her job as being about much more than preservation; as the great-granddaughter of a slave, she says she's truly an advocate. 'I still love this uniform,' she told the show. 'Partly because there's a silent message to every little girl of color that I pass on the street or in an elevator or on an escalator...that there's a career choice she may have never thought of.' Soskin helped develop the plans for the national park, which opened in 2001 to honor the working women of World War II. Today, she leads a tour called 'Untold Stories and Lost Conversations' to tell the history of wartime female laborers. She also shares her personal stories as a political activist and an African-American woman in the workforce."
[CN: Class warfare] Yesterday, Los Angeles became the largest city to adopt a $15/hour minimum wage. Which sounds like good news, except the $15/hour minimum wage won't go into effect until 2020, and right now there isn't a single part of LA where $15/hour is a livable wage. Welp.
But no cops, no guns, no jail time: "Five of the world's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, were fined roughly $5.7 billion, and four of them pleaded guilty to U.S. criminal charges over manipulation of foreign exchange rates, authorities said on Wednesday. A fifth bank, UBS AG, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates, the U.S. Justice Department said."
[CN: Sexual assault; coercion] What in the fucking world: "Two female college students said they were forced to endure almost weekly vaginal probes as part of a medical diagnostic sonography class at [Valencia College in Orlando, Florida], according to a civil rights lawsuit filed in federal court. ...Carol Traynor, a spokeswoman for Valencia College, said in a statement on Monday that using volunteers, including students, for medical sonography training was a nationally accepted practice. The women's lawsuit contends they protested but were bullied into submission. 'Valencia's established and widespread policy was to browbeat students who did not consent to those invasive probes and threaten plaintiffs' academic standing as well as their future careers until the students complied,' the lawsuit states."
[CN: Health issues] Another prominent Republican has abandoned his party after realizing that Obamacare is a good thing that could help him out a hell of a lot.
[CN: Class warfare; healthcare access] Here, though, is a reminder that we still need comprehensive healthcare reform that gets private, for-profit insurance out of the way of healthcare access.
[CN: Rape culture] Today, there will be a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the backlog of rape kits across the nation. At RH Reality Check, Sofia Resnick reports: "A three-month investigation by RH Reality Check has revealed that the agency charged with overseeing this effort, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has been unable to answer these rudimentary questions, leaving advocates at a loss to explain why so little progress has been made on the backlog even while the Obama administration has identified it as a top priority for sexual justice."
[CN: Misogyny] So, as soon as I heard that the Cannes Film Festival was denying entry to women wearing flat shoes, I thought: That's gonna be a real problem for some women with disabilities. And sure enough: "Film producer Valeria Richter, who has part of her left foot amputated, says she was stopped at the Cannes Film Festival for not wearing high heels." Get it together, Cannes. Fuck's sake.
Gallup's latest poll finds that 60% of US respondents believe that same-sex marriages should be legal, with the same rights as different-sex marriages.
All right then: "A mysterious robotic space plane launched its secretive mission for the US air force on Wednesday, its fourth long orbital flight in five years. ...The spacecraft's mission, including the technology on board and what its objectives are, are secret, but the air force has revealed at least one detail. In a statement, the air force said the X-37B will test a new electric engine called a Hall thruster, described as an 'electric propulsion device that produces thrust by ionizing and accelerating a noble gas, usually xenon.'"
[CN: Rape] Senator Claire McCaskill tells Game of Thrones to GTFO following that horrendous rape scene.
Dogs are the best: "Service Dogs That Sniff out Seizures Give Kids Better Lives: "Life shouldn't be so complicated at 5. Take a child who has a condition. Give them a dog. The dog opens up a world for this child. It's important for a child's life."
[CN: Animal injury, but with happy ending] All the blubs forever! A man adopts a very frightened and injured cat he rescued from the highway: "'I've got too much invested in this baby to let him fail,' Richard Christianson, who aptly named the cat 'Freeway,' told ABC 15. ...Christianson, who already has three dogs and four cats, said he'd been planning on adopting Freeway from the beginning and was able to bring him home Thursday. 'He was hurt, but his life is going to be way different now,' he told Catster in April." ♥
Fat and the Bikini Body Meme
[Content Note: Fat hatred; body policing.]
It's again that time of year where a popular meme starts showing up on social media. It tends to feature silhouettes of what are meant to be read as female bodies, including or sometimes exclusively very fat bodies, and text that is some variation on: "How to Get a Bikini Body: Step 1: Buy a bikini. Step 2: Put it on your body."
Let me first say, once again, that fat women are not a monolith, and different fat women will have different reactions to this meme. I don't purport to speak for all fat women, some of whom like this meme very much, and I am not seeking to police or criticize their individual reactions to it.
I do, however, want to do some awareness-raising on behalf of the fat women who aren't so keen on the meme, because I know there are a lot of thin and in-betweenie women who spend time in this space who want to do good fat ally work and may not have considered some of the reasons not all fat women find it a strictly positive or supportive message.
So, here are a couple of things to consider before you share this image under the auspices of being a fat ally (or even as a fat person):
1. Not all fat women can buy a bikini. That's not just a consideration of financial realities, which are always at issue in consumerist memes, but it's also a reflection of the fact that even off-the-rack (or off-the-website) "plus-size" bikinis have a finite size range.
There are sites who will custom-make bikinis for women of any size based on their individual measurements, but that is, of course, a costly option. And naturally there are women who are skilled enough to make their own bikinis, but that is not an option for anyone who lacks those talents.
Casually suggesting that all fat women can just go "buy a bikini," without any acknowledgment of the fact that purchasing a bikini in one's size might not be an option, especially for very fat women, is not supportive. It also reinforces the idea that there's an "acceptable" level of fatness which tops out at the maximum size of most "plus-size" fashion lines, and anyone whose body exceeds those standard sizes is thus "unacceptably" fat.
2. Putting a bikini on one's fat body is not just about the physical act of getting into a swimsuit. There are all kinds of cultural disincentives to be a fat woman in a bikini in public, and we are obliged to navigate them no matter how much we might love our own bodies.
There is a vast difference in being a woman who has insecurities about a body in which she sees imperfections but is broadly culturally acceptable, and a woman who has insecurities about a body that significantly deviates from what is considered culturally acceptable. That is not to diminish, at all, the seriousness of body insecurities no matter what one's size. It is merely to observe that even if fat women get okay with their own bodies, there is not an existing cultural space in which we are accepted.
There's no equivalent for fat women to the narrative "we all have flaws!" No deviation from some impossible ideal should ever regarded as a "flaw," anyway, but fat is not regarded as a mere flaw.
And we are not, outside fat acceptance spaces, celebrated for a willingness to show our bodies "despite" their imperfections. We are not considered brave. We are harassed, shamed, policed, threatened, attacked.
The thing about "love your body" campaigns for my fat self is that I can love my body all the fuck I want, but the bigger problem for me is other people hating my body.
It's so much more complicated than just putting on a bikini, for lots of fat women. We need to respect and recognize that.
* * *
This isn't a comprehensive list of potential objections. I hope if fat women share in comments any additional concerns they may have with the meme, not-fat women will listen to their perspectives.
Hillary Sexism Watch, Part Wev in an Endless Series
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Here is just a real headline in the world: "Iowa Democrats: Flawed Hillary Clinton Our Only Hope."
The Bloomberg article is about a focus group of 10 Iowa Democrats who were "assembled this week in Des Moines by Bloomberg Politics and Washington-based Purple Strategies" to offer their opinions about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Here are some things you will find in that article:
Iowa Democrats are rallying around Hillary Clinton with pragmatic enthusiasm, acknowledging distaste and concern over some of her tactics and ethics while embracing her strengths, experience, and policies heading into the 2016 presidential election.
Despite her perceived flaws, the group's participants indicated that they believed Clinton represents the Democrats' only hope of holding on to the White House.
"She's not perfect," said Charlie, 24, a graphic designer. "She's been in the eye for a long time, in the public's eye, and you're going to have some stuff on her. But she has great policies and she knows how to get stuff done."Now, let me be abundantly clear: I absolutely think it's crucial to discuss any potential president's strengths and weaknesses. For a decade, I've been arguing in this space that the mainstream political media isn't effective enough at facilitating serious and meaningful conversation about the issues that really matter, focusing on shit like with whom voters would most like to have a beer instead of which candidate will make sure voters can afford beer, and food, and housing, and healthcare.
So I have no objection to examining Hillary Clinton's strengths and weaknesses; evaluating the efficacy and decency of her policies. That's what the media and potential voters should be doing.
But strengths and weaknesses is not the same as "perfection vs. flawed." The entire framing around Clinton is deeply problematic.
Of course she is not a "perfect" candidate. There are no perfect candidates. But here is an article, and it's one of many, that writes about Clinton being "flawed" as if that is somehow unique to her.
What's unique to Clinton is the idea that she could be—or should be—perfect. Her male competitors are not held to that standard. And thus there is no reason to discuss their "flaws," because it's taken as read that they will not be perfect, not be ideologically pure, not be magically capable of being equally and wholly appealing to every potential voter to the left of center.
Again, you don't have to like Hillary Clinton as a candidate even a little bit to have a problem with talking about a female candidate—and only a female candidate—in these terms.
And you don't have to have a very sophisticated grasp of feminism to understand why this is an issue of misogyny: If you understand the very basic feminist tenet that women are held to impossible standards, for which there is no male equivalent, then you understand the dynamic underwriting articles that talk about Hillary Clinton's failure to be perfect.
Which is the same dynamic underwriting the reflexive need so many of us have to start even the most milquetoast endorsement of anything about Hillary Clinton and/or her policies with, "Clinton isn't a perfect candidate, but..."
No shit she isn't. No one is. But it's only Clinton who somehow warrants these incessant caveats about her lack of perfection.
Yes, let us talk about the positions Clinton holds with which we disagree, but let us also do it without the misogynist qualification about how she isn't perfect, thus upholding the profoundly misogynist narrative that women should and can be perfect. That women have to meet impossible standards for which no (white) male Democratic candidate is even expected to reach.
Here is another thing you will find in the linked article:
Al, a teacher who described himself as over 65 without specifying his age, said there is something about Clinton that gives him pause. "It's hard to put my finger on it," he said. "It's just, I don't think we would get along that well." At the same time, he said, "I think she's very smart" and "I admire her. I admire her husband."Huh.
David Brooks Never Learns
[Content Note: Iraq War; World War II/Nazi reference.]
David Brooks' latest garbage column for the New York Times is titled "Learning from Mistakes," and it's all about how he doesn't do that. Basically.
He was the head cheerleader of the Iraq War, right atop the pyramid in the middle of the Neocon Gymnasium during the warmongering halftime show, and now instead of just saying, "Holy shit, I was so wrong, I was terribly wrong, and what have we done? I AM SO SORRY," which is really the only acceptable thing to say at this point, he's written some smarmy trash about data points and outcomes and calibrations. He's got mad skills at using the most reprehensibly anodyne language to describe the monstrous things he has advocated.
Anyway.
His mendacious history-telling has been thoroughly taken down by Simon Maloy, Judd Legum, Echidne, and Scott LeMieux. Go read them!
I just want to note that this is how Brooks starts this appalling column, that this is how he makes the case that, hey, it's tough to judge whether war is a bad idea because "history is an infinitely complex web of causations":
If you could go back to 1889 and strangle Adolf Hitler in his crib, would you do it? At one level, the answer is obvious. Of course, you should. If there had been no Hitler, presumably the Nazi Party would have lacked the charismatic leader it needed to rise to power. Presumably, there would have been no World War II, no Holocaust, no millions dead on the Eastern and Western fronts.I mean, listen: I obviously love EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT THAT, including and especially the disappearing of all the women of color and poor white women on whose backs "the work force" was built and sustained. But what I think I love most is how I could go back and find countless Brooks columns in which working women have been demonized as a family-destroying scourge.
But, on the other hand, if there were no World War II, you wouldn't have had the infusion of women into the work force.
It's pretty cool how we're cultural plague garbage except when he wants to defend his own significant role in promoting an unnecessary war that has left thousands of people dead, displaced millions, and fundamentally undermined the safety and security of an entire region.
This fucking guy. He doesn't even have the decency to be ashamed of himself.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker catvoncat: "What word would you like to see removed from the lexicon so that you never have to hear or read it again? (Doesn't necessarily have to be an -ist word. It could be a completely innocuous word that you just don't like for some reason.)"
What I Did on My Vacation
I saw Mad Max! I ate delicious food and drank delicious beverages! I sat around our firepit with my darling husband and our dear friends and our adorable doggies! I went to sex shops and bought things! I took all the selfies with Deeky W. Gashlycrumb!
Goofing around, lounging at home, at the movies, and visiting a candy factory.
And, as we did last year, we got tandem tattoos! I'll leave it to Deeks to share pix of his new (and very awesome) art if he's so inclined, but here is an image of my new piece, which is a watercolor Medusa jellyfish, in reference to the Greek myth:
The piece took nearly four hours, and was done by Jake Crozier, who also did my beetle, my abstract leg piece, my POW!, and my sassy cat.
Photos by Deeks.
I gave Jake a basic concept and told him to do whatever he wanted, and I love the result. Thanks, Jake! And thanks to Deeks for being the best, and thanks to Iain for getting me more ink for my birthday! ♥
As always, please feel welcome to share your ink, talk about your tattoos, ask questions of inked folks if you're considering getting a tattoo, whatever you like!
Tweet of the Day
Technically yesterday, but whatever!
As you might have heard, President Obama finally got his own Twitter account. So former president Bill Clinton tweeted this at him:
LOL!
For the record, President Obama responded: "Good question, @billclinton. The handle comes with the house. Know anyone interested in @FLOTUS?"
Daily Dose of Cute
Dachshund butt! Another fun visit with Ms. Lottie this weekend, obvs.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Liss and Ana Talk About Mad Max
[Content Note: Loads of spoilers for Mad Max: Fury Road. Discussion of rape culture.]
As you know, I was very excited for Mad Max: Fury Road, even more so after MRAs went apeshit about how it's a feminist film, so naturally I saw it this past weekend on opening day with Iain and Deeky AND I LOVED IT SO MUCH! Ana Mardoll also saw it and LOVED IT SO MUCH, and we spent a considerable amount of time excitedly texting about it, so we decided to revive "Liss and Ana Talk About" so we could share our MAXIMUM ENTHUSIASM with y'all. Enjoy!
Ana: Okay, so we have to talk about Mad Max: Feminist Road. Can we talk about Mad Max: Feminist Road?
Liss: YES! YES LET'S TALK ABOUT MAD MAX: FEMINIST ROAD!
Ana: I am just so happy over here. I hadn't even known about this movie until the last minute! I'd actually re-watched Road Warrior a few weeks ago out of the blue, then suddenly MRAs were boycotting this new thing, and also Tom Hardy was in it! Somehow it all flew under my radar, but we hadn't seen a movie in theaters in awhile so I figured anything that pissed off MRAs had to be good, right? And then...magic happened.
Liss: When I first saw the trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road, I tweeted at Deeks: "I find it unlikely George Miller would write an anti-patriarchy piece about a dystopian warlord who thinks women are his things......but it kind of looks like it? WEIRD." I did not believe it was possible! And then OMFG THIS MOVIE!!!
Especially because I was like: Eve Ensler? Not, ahh, my first choice for an advisor for reasons (and let's be honest, that was definitely reflected in the relative lack of representation of women of color and variations in gender presentation). But there was SO MUCH UNEXPECTEDLY AND PLEASANTLY RIGHT WITH THIS MOVIE.
Ana: Liss, I think I held my breath a full two hours in that theater. I have never been so invested in a movie in my life. There were, what? Eleven female characters? Twelve? Twenty? Let's count: Five wives and Furiosa and six Vuvalini (I THINK YOU MEAN VULVALINI, AMIRIGHT?) and the nursemaid for the wives and the three fat ladies and how many women is that? There were so many women! They all had distinct personalities and flaws and strengths and they were normal people and it was so amazing.
And because there wasn't just ONE chick (who has to survive until the end, or at least die in meaningful slow motion), I was so much more invested in their deaths, if that makes any sense? Joss Whedon has that reputation of "anyone can die," but you sorta know that probably the Smurfette isn't going to die because then who will be the chick, amiright? But, amazingly, when you have twelve women on-screen, anyone can die and I was so gut-wrenched (in the best of ways) whenever one did. It was amazing.
I actually saw someone on twitter call it the "rare dodecabechdel test" and I just. Yes. This.
Liss: That's PERFECT. And, yes, I was so invested in each of the (many!) female characters for the very reason you say: The lack of tokenism meant that everyone was at risk. I loved that. I loved SO MUCH, though, because there was SO MUCH to love!
The scene where she puts the gun on his shoulder! The enslaved fat women releasing the water! The women already having been secreted away at the beginning of the film without 20 minutes of graphic scenes of their torture and abuse! (Take a note, George R.R. Martin!) So many explicit symbols of the Patriarchy!
And, at first, I was like oh shit we're using fat and disability as markers of evil noooooo, which is such a typical apocalypse trope, but then Furiosa has a disability and the fat women are heroes! WHAT! WHAAAAAAAAAAT!
And not just the story and characters, but as an action movie, it was so inventive! There were so many things I haven't seen a million times. The bendy sticks! The exploding spears! The grenades being tossed by motorcyclists!
THIS MOVIE!
Ana: The gun on the shoulder. My god, that scene. Toast the Capable telling Max how many bullets he has left, and him grudgingly recognizing (with one shot left!) that Furiosa is a better shot than him, and her using him to aim. "Don't breathe." Every fibre in my body wanted to burst into applause at that!
Liss: I admit it: I got all choked up at that scene, and I actually breathed out loud: "Fuck yesssss."
Ana: Omg, the "Pole Cats" i.e. BENDY STICKS YES. Apparently those were inspired by Cirque du Soleil? (I perversely hope that detail will extra-special-upset the MRAs. IS NO MAN-MOVIE SAFE ANYMORE?) Really, I was just stunned and amazed at how this is an action movie that never stops moving, but in ways where I never felt bored or over-saturated. Like, we've all sat through a car chase where it feels like the scene has gone on too long? That never once happened for me in this film!
Can I riff off that "Don't Breathe" scene for something that meant a lot to me? I've been saying on twitter (and @Lexica made a Storify) that I don't personally agree with the argument that this shouldn't have been a Mad Max film and that it should have been an all-woman cast. Because, to me, the context that George Miller directed all four of these movies is really important. Best I can tell, he didn't wake up one day and think "I really want to make a feminist movie, but it'll never sell; better crowbar in a man to draw the crowds."
Instead, if I understand correctly(?), he wanted to make a Mad Max movie and then made lady-characters who feel like real people and he let his male character not outshine them in every way and was even okay with Max taking a backseat role at times. To me, that's incredibly powerful. I've seen lots of movies where men save women, and I've seen a few movies where women save themselves, but I'm hurting for movies where men and women work together and where a badass man (especially one who has a franchise of badassness behind him and is practically the poster boy for Loner Apocalypse Cowboy fantasies) acknowledges that a woman is better than him. And is in no way emasculated by it.
He's still badass. She's just better. And that's okay. It just...I wept, I'm not going to lie. And while I totally sympathize with wanting more women and all-female cast movie (HOLLYWOOD GET ON THIS, PLEASE), I also think there's space for having men in non-leadership roles in these movies. Because socially we model behavior and I really think it's incredibly powerful to see someone like Max admitting that, you know what? Furiosa is flat-out a better shot than him, and there is more at stake here than his male ego.
Liss: YESSSSSS. The movement. It felt like the movement of time, rather than movement through space. Which totally underscored the story as a metaphor for social change—which is not, in fact, always straightforward progress, but sometimes doubles back and moves sideways and stalls and and and.
Relatedly, Iain made a great point about returning to the Citadel—how it's a message about taking over institutions instead of self-segregating in "lesser" spaces. That was a very powerful observation for me, and I think it's also related to your point about what space Max occupies in the film, because it's Max who says they should go back and reclaim it.
But he doesn't lead that charge. He rolls with them. In support of them. And then, upon their victory and only then, does he tell Furiosa his name, before disappearing into the crowd. Self-interest giving way to self.
Ana: YES YES YES, when they first decided to go back to the citadel, I had so many powerful mixed feelings. Because I knew a lot of them wouldn't survive. But...that was also a sort of weird, fucked-up home for them? Food and people and the things that they knew. I love Iain's point about it being a reversal of the idea that if feminists don't like things, we should all go live on an island somewhere.
God. I just. The women, though. THE WOMEN. The bit where Immortan Joe is aiming at Furiosa, and Splendid swings out? I nearly screamed, I had so many emotions about that scene. I saw some guy on twitter complaining that if these are "strong female characters," then "how much can they lift, huh?" and I just laughed so hard because Splendid can hold herself off the side of a speeding rig while eleventy months pregnant. I'm guessing most of us can't do that, bro. Ha.
Liss: Haha! For real. And can I just take a moment here to appreciate how Max's thumbs-up to Splendid was perfection? *a moment*
Ana: *a moment* Can we talk about Furiosa being disabled? I didn't even realize until she was wrestling with Max! And the movie never slows down to comment on it. There's no "how'd that happen?" or otherwise singling her out as being unusual (and the movie being inclusive). I loved how perfectly normal she was treated, like, that was incredibly powerful to me. Especially when apocalypse fiction often acts like any kind of disability is a death sentence because only Randian heroes survive without pop-tarts or whatever. Nope!
Liss: Nope! Haha! I thought they did a solid job of choreographing Furiosa's fight scenes (during which her prosthetic was AWOL) in a way that respected her disability. By which I mean: In a way that did not call undue attention to it, but also didn't pretend as though it wouldn't matter at all.
Ana: Yes! Just so much about the movie was so powerful, even in the little touches. There's an image on The Mary Sue of Toast the Capable using the bolt cutters to cut off her chastity belt, and it's just so powerful to me that she's cutting them off by herself. There's not a cluster of women around her helping because lady-arms are just so weak, you know. (Even when she was "failing" to cut Max's chains, it seemed like she was failing on purpose and I loved that.)
Which, speaking of! How much did I love that when they feel threatened by him, they fight, they try to kill him, and then they negotiate with him. Like people do. There wasn't any pouting lips or fake seduction attempts like we've seen in literally every movie ever. Those scenes that are fan-service while confirming that women are lying bitches who use your boners like a weapon. Instead, they reacted the way most women would react to a clear and present danger: trying to squish him like a cockroach.
Liss: Yessity yes yes. These were women—people—fighting for their survival, and they responded to and interacted with Max (another person fighting for his survival) in a way that made sense. Is he a threat to our survival? Fight back! Is he an asset to our survival? Find a way to work with him! LIKE YA WOULD.
Ana: Right! OH SPEAKING OF "FAILINGS." My heart stopped when Cheedo the Fragile was up on that rig saying "Richter, take me back!", and you know? Earlier she'd wanted to give up? And, I mean, this is a direct transcript of my thoughts in the theater, I swear: "Oh, that's disappointing. Still, I can't expect all the women to be perfect, I wish they were, but real people have real failings. And I'm not going to blame a woman for being so entrenched in abuse that she can't— OH MY GOD IT WAS A CLEVER TRICK I LOVE HER I LOVE THIS MOVIE I LOVE EVERYTHING FOREVER YESSSS." Like, I just...I loved how these women knew their own temptations and used those weaknesses in order to be strong.
And that was powerful for me, too. Because I'll never be able to drive a war rig, and I can't rappel down buildings, and I've never staked a vampire, and despite being a bisexual wiccan I can't actually do the things that Joss Whedon thinks that means. But, my god, I could play helpless and backstab patriarchy like a boss, you know? *laughs*
Liss: Uh-huh lol. Speaking of the patriarchy! I loved how the three groups converging on them were essentially: The oligarchic politician, the fuel magnate, and the war machine. The three prongs of the military-industrial-corporate patriarchy. Amazing.
Ana: Omg I didn't even notice that symbolism. Perfection.
Liss: And I really need to express my UNRELENTING JOY about the existence of the double-necked flamethrower guitar who played them into war like some dystopian bagpiper from hell! The guitarist and the drummers—such a terrific apocalyptic riff on pipers and drummers from traditional field warfare. LOVE. I nearly came out of my seat every time I saw that fucking guitarist!
Ana: Also, can we talk about the themes of bodily rights? I have seen so many movies where Apocalypse = Rape Land, and I was so thrilled to see that idea expanded on that trope while at the same time fixing a lot of the problems with it. Because, first of all, this isn't Rape Land; Furiosa is a woman who drives a rig and she's respected by her community (and by the men who ride with her). But for the women who are being denied agency, it's so much more nuanced than the trope usually is. There are "breeders," yes. There are also the women who are exploited for milk. And then that was expanded, beautifully, into Max being exploited for blood.
I love that. It's a "the patriarchy hurts you men, too!" message with such a great punch-up. Because Max is the iconic manly loner protagonist of these things and here the movie is saying that even he is not strong enough or fast enough or awesome enough to escape exploitation. He's being used for his body, just like all the other marginalized members of society are being used. To me, he essentially is a male version of the "breeders," and Furiosa is carrying them all to safety (even as all six of her passengers help her and themselves along the way). It's a tremendous look at the ownership of own bodies and labor.
And then? At the end? He saves his tubing. He uses it to save her life. I was stunned to see he saved his tubing—didn't he never want to give blood again after all that?—and then it hit me right there in the theaters that ohmigosh it's a consent metaphor because of course it is. What was done to him wasn't wrong because people shouldn't give blood, but rather it was wrong because people shouldn't take blood. It was subtle and powerful and amazing.
Liss: Maude, yes, the autonomy commentary was brilliant. I kept thinking about how one of the arguments pro-choice advocates always make is that we don't compel anyone else to use their bodies to support the life of another human being, AND THAT WAS THE EXACT SCENARIO IN WHICH OUR HERO FOUND HIMSELF AT THE HANDS OF THE PATRIARCHY. It was a literal translation of that ubiquitous pro-choice hypothetical. Fucking amazing.
How the hell did that end up in a Mad Max movie, for fuck's sake?!
I hardly even know how to convey how surprised and delighted and genuinely moved I was by this film. But I think the fact that I have barely even mentioned Tom Hardy is probably indicative of the fact that there is A LOT TO LOVE ABOUT IT!
Ana: LOL! Fact.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Gun violence; gang violence; white supremacy] Over the weekend in Waco, Texas, two rival motorcycle gangs, the Bandidos and the Cossacks, had a major shootout in a busy shopping plaza that left nine bikers dead and 18 others wounded. The two gangs have a rivalry that goes back to the 1960s, and, last year, "two members of the Bandidos, including the president of the Abilene chapter, were indicted on charges of stabbing two men, in what the police said was a conflict with the Cossacks. The feud formed the backdrop of the shootout here on Sunday afternoon, when a gathering intended to discuss bikers' rights and how to work on issues of mutual concern erupted into gunfire."
Below is a screen cap of the headline and accompanying image from the New York Times' coverage of the shootout (from the first-linked article above):
[CN: Videos may autoplay at links] Nine people killed, 18 more wounded, and 170 arrested after a shootout in a public place during which gang members shot at police—yet the police somehow managed to take a number of white bikers into custody alive and without handcuffs and while retaining access to their mobile phones. Welp.
* * *
[CN: War] Meanwhile, in the fucking mess we created: "The use of Shi'ite militias to try to take back the Iraqi city of Ramadi from Islamic State risks unleashing more sectarian bloodletting, current and former U.S. officials said, but Washington and Baghdad appear to have few other options. The prospect of Iranian-backed militias leading efforts to retake Ramadi underlines Washington's dwindling options to defeat Islamic State in Iraq, with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's grip on power weak, a national army still in its infancy, and Tehran increasingly assertive." Good thing we spread all that freedom over there.
[CN: Transmisogynoir; violence] RIP London Chanel: "London Chanel, a 21-year-old transgender woman, was stabbed to death in North Philadelphia early Monday, a city official told BuzzFeed News. Chanel is the eighth transgender woman of color killed in the United States this year—a trend that anti-violence advocates have called an epidemic. And as in many of the cases, Chanel was misgendered in early reports." Goddammit. My condolences to her friends and family and community.
[CN: Cancer] This is pretty remarkable: "When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) headed to Havana on a historic trade mission in April, he returned with the promise of an important commodity: a Cuban-developed lung cancer vaccine. The vaccine, called CimaVax, has been researched in Cuba for 25 years and became available for free to the Cuban public in 2011. The country's Center for Molecular Immunology signed an agreement last month with Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York to import CimaVax and begin clinical trials in the United States."
[CN: War on agency; reproductive coercion] This fucking guy: "Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) publicly opposes abortion and has repeatedly run for office as a pro-life candidate. Last week, he was one of 242 House members to vote for a proposed 20-week abortion ban that has become one of the top priorities for the current GOP-controlled Congress. An anti-abortion Republican casting a vote in favor of an abortion restriction is not typically newsworthy. However, DesJarlais' positions on the subject are particularly controversial, thanks to evidence that emerged in 2012 that revealed he has advocated for at least three legal abortions in his personal life. [He] once pressured a 24-year-old woman to have an abortion after she told him she was pregnant with his child." I mean, yes, he is a hypocrite etc., but he's also an abusive shitlord who's engaging in reproductive coercion.
"Former Cuban castaway Elián González, now 21, would like to visit US: He would like to see a baseball game, visit Washington museums, and talk to Americans." This kid.
A follow-up on the case at the center of the Serial podcast: "The Maryland Court of Special Appeals granted Adnan Syed an opportunity to call a woman who said in an affidavit she saw him at a library around the time of the murder of his ex-girlfriend and high school classmate, Hae Min Lee, on Jan. 13, 1999. Syed appealed his 2000 murder conviction arguing that his legal counsel was ineffective for not interviewing the witness, Asia McClain, and for not seeking a plea deal."
Oh hello: "A 400-year-old botany book contains what could be the only known portrait of Shakespeare made in his lifetime, according to an academic expert." Turns out he looks like a Brooklyn hipster who's into the moustache scene BIG TIME.
Are you a fan of both Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Taye Diggs? Then you'll probably be pretty excited about this news!
And finally! A collection of pictures of giraffes sleeping! OMG SQUEE!
